


Retribution

by midnightsnapdragon



Series: Nostalgia [3]
Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Espionage theme, F/M, Spies, Spy!AU, The Lunar Chronicles Ship Weeks, tlc ship weeks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 14:52:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8331955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightsnapdragon/pseuds/midnightsnapdragon
Summary: Cress and her allies are on a mission to retrieve the Blackburn files and she comes face-to-face with a man who has wronged her.





	

**i.**

Cress paced the control room, checking the screens to make sure she hadn’t missed any gaps in the security system. Everything was under control as far as she could tell, but still she had a bad feeling that something would go wrong tonight. 

According to the plan, Cinder and Scarlet would be looking for Selene’s Manifesto at this very moment, somewhere in the lower levels of the American military stronghold. Cress hoped dearly that they would come get her and clear out before anyone else came on the scene.

A lot of people would have liked to get their hands on that file, including Levana, the leader of the sinister Blackburn mafia. Including Linh Cinder – and, by default, her allies – who wanted to keep that information (Selene’s rescue and Earthen identity) out of Levana’s hands.

Including Carswell Thorne.

**ii.**

Cress didn’t know why he wanted that manifesto. In fact, she knew nothing about him at all. He had simply shown up at her favoured coffee shop one day, smiled – and she was a goner. Over the three weeks that they’d known each other, kind of dating, she’d told him a lot of things.

For one thing, the part she played in the anti-Blackburn spy organization. This was supposed to be a secret she gave to no one, not even a boyfriend, but at the time she hadn’t seen any harm in it. She’d also told him, with no small amount of pride, that she’d figured out where the legendary Manifesto was hidden.

Cress hadn’t even been suspicious when Thorne had asked her for the location.

The next day, she’d caught him writing a letter that betrayed all her secrets. To whom, she hadn’t waited to find out – she’d simply run out of the room in shock. Thorne disappeared from the face of the earth within a week, and she had been too ashamed to even look for him.

He’d wooed her for information. He was a honeypot. And she had fallen for his act.

Cress hoped he wouldn’t show up tonight and botch everything. She hoped they would never cross paths again.

**iii.**

The beeping of security code buttons came from just outside. Cress jerked up her head to stare at the door; for a moment she was frozen, then she lunged for the gun that lay on the control room’s only desk. Hands shaking, sure she was about to find herself face-to-face with a guard or a Blackburn mafioso, she pointed it at the door.

Scarlet’s words came back to her, ever so helpful: _shoot first, think later._

Easy for her to say. Cress couldn’t even bring herself to kill spiders.

There was a brief silence. Then, the security code on the wall blinked a green light, and the door glided open. She found herself looking down the barrel of a gun.

And just behind it, Thorne blinked, the look on his face plainly incredulous. _“Cress?”_

She gaped.

_Oh, no. This is not good._

He gave a surprised half-laugh, like they’d somehow wound up at the same party, and lowered his gun into the holster at his hip. “What are you doing here?”

“Same as you,” she said stiffly, keeping her sights on him. “At least, I assume you’re here for the Manifesto?”

Thorne grinned – the slow, smoldering grin that had once melted her heart. “You know me.” 

That might have undone her; Cress almost lowered her weapon, the thought of hurting him unthinkable. But then she remembered how he’d caressed her face, how he’d won her trust like a prize, like a _game,_ and her hands miraculously steadied on the gun.

“Get out,” she ordered. The words came out stronger than she could have thought possible. “Before my friends come.”

Thorne cocked his head. “Don’t you want to introduce me?” Lifting his hands palm-out in a gesture of supplication, he took a few slow steps forward. 

Cress jerked back, pointing the gun threateningly at his head. “Get back! Don’t come any closer!”

Apparently not bothered with the threat to his life, he took another step. “Cress, listen to me. I didn’t get to explain the –“

“I don’t” – she faltered – “want to hear any explanations.” For every step forward he took, she backed away, until she felt the edge of the desk digging into her back.

Thorne came to stand not two feet away from her. “Please. Just hear me out.”

Cress gave him the hottest glare she could muster and flicked the safety off the gun. Disbelief flickered across his face, then amusement.

“Cress,” he murmured softly, tenderly. “You wouldn’t shoot me.”

There was a flash of red hair in the doorway. “What’s going –“

BANG.

Thorne howled and went down on his knees, cradling his left arm against his stomach. Behind him, Scarlet stood open-mouthed on the threshold, her eyes following the smoke wisps of Cress’s gun barrel.

"You shot him,” she said, amazed.

Thorne looked up at her through streaming eyes, betrayal etched into his face. “You shot me!”

Cress could only stare at him, a lump rising in her throat. She knew she was supposed to make some witty quip, to make light of hurting him, but all that came from her lips was the hint of a sob.

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Scarlet sneered, recovering her temper. Crossing the room in a few steps, she gently took Cress by the arm and guided her away, throwing a disdainful glance at Thorne over her shoulder. “Someone had to do it. I would have shot you myself, but the honour really belongs to the one with a score to settle.”

Thorne’s only response was a groan as he gingerly felt the bullet wound in his upper arm.

As Scarlet led her out of the control room, Cress whispered, _“I shot him.”_

“I don’t know how he’s got the nerve to show his face here,” Scarlet muttered. She knew the story of Cress’s mistake but had never blamed her. “Freaking honeypot.”

Cinder was waiting for them outside, a USB tucked into her pocket, looking slightly panicked. When she saw Cress’s face, she didn’t ask, only gestured for them to _go, go, go._ All three of them broke into a run as, somewhere in the facility, distant shouts began to rise. The guards had woken up.

Scarlet sighed as they turned into the hallway with the secret passage. Bullets pinged off the floor behind them. “Cress, honey, I’m so proud of you. But you should know that the charming ones always mean trouble.”

*-*

_Please review._


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